Seville Province

What NOT To Do In Seville: Unpopular Opinions, Ethical Choices!

Everyone promotes all possible tourist attractions in Seville as cultural experiences, but let me tell you, not all activities you’re sold in Seville are ethical.

With an objective eye and a passion for ethical animal tourism, I’ve wanted to write this for a long time, and I’m finally finding the time to share my thoughts.

I know my thoughts aren’t always the most popular, and I get it! We all get sold by kick-ass marketing and idyllic experiences, but I’m asking you to be critical of where you put your money.

Since I was one who didn’t know before someone shared their knowledge with me, I just want to pass it on.

You do what you want with it, but I hope that after reading this, you leave a little bit different from when you stumbled upon this post.

I mean, back in the day, I would even consider going to see a bullfight to experience the culture! Who would have thought (glad I didn’t, though!)

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Pictures of horse-drawn carriages and Seville bullring with the overlay text: What Not To Do in Seville Spain as An Ethical Traveler.

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What NOT to do in Seville

Visit the bull ring

The Maestranza Bull Ring is one of the most famous in Spain for its historical significance. It dates back to the 1700s, as one of the country’s oldest.

Bullfights have been part of Spanish culture since the 8th century, and of course, you can say this is a deeply rooted cultural event. I’m not disagreeing with that. But I do think that this isn’t a culture that fits the 21st century.

And most tourists don’t even want to see a bullfight because of the cruelty we, in these days, know the bulls are victims of. Yet, hundreds of thousands of tourists go on a guided tour of the bullring and visit its museum every year.

Because if you visit the bull ring on a tourist visit without seeing a bull fight, shouldn’t that be ok?

Sounds like it, right?

Then I have one question for you.

Where do you think the ticket money goes when the arena still hosts bullfights?

Every year, between 120 and 150 bulls are killed in Seville’s Plaza de Toros. The same ticket office that sells tickets to these bull-fighting events sells you the tickets to see the arena on your tourist visit.

The money goes into the same pot.

To maintain the arena so it can take on all these bullfights and to prepare and execute bullfighting events, which ultimately means torture and killing bulls for entertainment.

For me, this is not something I want to support, so I will not visit the bullring in Seville or any other place where they still do bullfights. If this changes, I would love to enter the arena.

But as a long-time local in Seville, I know exactly how rooted this culture is in many locals, so I don’t see it happening in a long time. I still have hope that it will become less popular for every generation.

Cultural experiences in Seville I do recommend instead:

  • Semana Santa (Holy Week)
  • Feria de Abril (two weeks after Holy Week ends, one of the biggest Ferias in Andalucia!)
Seville Bullring from the outside with white walls and yellow and red windows and doors. Visiting the bullring is one of the most unethical things to do in Seville.

Take a horse-drawn carriage

Taking a horse-drawn carriage through medieval cities in Europe has been romanticized for as long as I’ve been alive. When you travel to Seville, it’s easy to think that this is a romantic and nice way to see the city.

But take a step back and think about the big picture.

What is a one-hour vacation memory for you is a lifelong sentence for the horse. Seville is one of the hottest cities in Spain. These horses stand and walk on cobbled streets from morning to nightfall. No matter what you’re told, this is not healthy for an animal.

The horses must pull the carriage whether it wants or not, no matter the temperature or how tired they are.

So that you can have your one-hour vacation memory.

Just as they must draw this carriage for the other hundreds of thousands of tourists who want the same one-hour vacation memory and romantic photos.

I’ve seen these horses ride home at night, to the pueblos where they live outside of the city. After nightfall, after a long day standing on the cobbled streets of a scorching hot Seville.

Just to rest a few hours before riding back to the city the morning after for another long day pulling tourists around.

These horses are no longer seen as animals, but as money-making machines. Do you want to support that?

I really hope Seville follows Malaga, which has banned horse-drawn carriage rides.

A white horse with a carriage standing on the street in Seville on a hot sunny day. It's standing next to a noisy road with several lanes of fast-driving cars which is not the best place for a horse to work.

Visit Seville Aquarium

Seville Aquarium is one of the newer tourist attractions in Seville, which I was super disappointed about when it opened its doors in 2014.

Disappointed because I visited and didn’t like it? No.

I didn’t visit, and I won’t visit.

There is no reason for opening an aquarium unless it’s to take in any sea life that is left behind in a marine park for entertainment that has closed down, so they can have a safe retirement.

This is not the case with Seville Aquarium. This is a for-profit prison for around 7000 creatures.

The aquarium in Seville has over 400 different species, among them shark species that are highly migratory and naturally will travel up to 1000 kilometers annually.

By now, we should all know how this impacts the animals’ psychological state and also how they can get sick of not hunting and eating natural food.

How can you possibly defend this? So your kids can learn about these animals?

Aren’t there other ways to learn about animals? Like going on a snorkeling trip? Going dolphin watching or whale watching ethically in their natural habitat?

There are great options for this on Andalucia’s coast in places like Tarifa and Malaga.

READ MY SEVILLE GUIDES FULL OF ETHICAL ACTIVITIES TO DO

Get coffee at Starbucks

Ok, before I say anything else. Let me make it very clear: I do get coffee at Starbucks at times, though they’re by far the most ethical coffee place you can find.

While minimizing the use of, or even boycotting, Starbucks and other unethical chain stores and brands should be everyone’s goal, there’s another reason why I mention it in this post.

First of all, the reason why I like to drink coffee at Starbucks is that I know it always tastes the same and it’s always good. No surprises.

When I sit at any other coffee shop in Spain, I might get a kick-ass coffee, and when I order a second one, it’s sh*t. Well, that sucks.

But the thing is, when you’re in Seville, you must sit down at a local bar run by any other Pepe or Juanita. It’s not about how the coffee tastes; it’s about the atmosphere and the experience.

If you grab a Starbucks coffee, you could have been in Malaysia, New York, or Oslo. You wouldn’t know the difference other than the language of the cashier.

Do yourself the favor and experience a coffee in a proper Sevillian bar and support a local business instead of a big, unethically run chain. Pepe and Juanita will appreciate the business; it’s hard enough to make ends meet in Spain as it is.

Me drinking coffee at a local bar in Seville Spain. It's a sunny day, so I'm wearing a top and sunglasses enjoying the sun.

Summing up: ethical tourism in Seville

Summing up, by avoiding these experiences in Seville, you’re coming a long way towards being a responsible traveler.

It’s so easy to be sucked into the unethical tourist traps by not being aware or simply being blinded by the marketing and the “everyone does this in Seville”.

Simply by reading this post, I believe that you’re on the right path. Thank you!

Here are some ethical things to do in Seville and a suggestion for an ethical 3-day Seville itinerary.

Happy travels!